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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

White House Encourages Americans To Report Each Other

Yesterday the entire conservative blogosphere and Internet were abuzz with links to this page from WhiteHouse.gov, with the following alarming excerpt:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Yikes! (...and yes that "yikes" is the G-rated version of what I'm really thinking.) Encouraging Americans to report on each other for committing thoughtcrimes is pretty freaking scary if you ask me, the kind of thing that the Soviet Union did, or Nazi Germany, or the totalitarian government in Orwell's dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Honest "liberals" should be outraged at this- as a chief aspect of their political platform and worldview is tolerance for disagreement and freedom of thought and expression. I want to hear some outraged Democrats speak up against this horrifying precedent (could our White House be dipping its toe into the waters of police statism as a test to see how Americans would react?).

Or could the White House just be that dumb? Could they just be using this as a means of gathering information so they can put together more lame, transparently deceptive rebuttals (like the video on the page I linked to above) of people's chain e-mails and blog websites? If that's the case, I've got a suggestion for Rahm Emmanuel:

It's called Google! USE IT! You can find out all you need to know about what people are saying through the power of the Internet, which is far more appropriate than asking Americans to report on each other's opinions to the government.

Patriots, I've got a suggestion for you too: Let's e-mail bomb flag@whitehouse.gov with the following message:

Mr. President,

Asking Americans to report on each other's behavior and opinions to the government is a startling precedent to say the least. This is not the kind of change we wanted or voted for in 2008. Your promises of hope, transparency, and open-mindedness will crumble into cynicism, secrecy, and unchallenged dogmatism if your administration continues these policies.

I believe that a public option will necessarily push out private competition because it will have the advantage of taxpayer subsidies, which will also mean higher taxes for hard-working Americans. Given your past statements, I also believe that you and the Democrats in Congress understand this and hope to ultimately fashion a single-payer system.

I knew it! Before the election I knew Obama was either going to be one of the best presidents we ever had or even more of an anti-patriot than W. When I decided to vote for the "lesser of two evils", I think I was wrong. Shoud have voted for Ron Paul and at least retained the right to say I told you so.

Let's not get too carried away here. I'll be the first to point out the thought police when they are out there, but I think this is just pointing out how easy it is to spread lies on the internet and how may stupid people will believe them. Essentially it is a savvy move by the left wing statists to keep up with the next talking point of the right wing statists.

Anarchist Accountant: I see what you're saying. I will grant (as I did in the post) that this may not necessarily be a gestapo-like move on the part of the White House, but a simple way to monitor and combat Internet rumors to win the media war on this healthcare "reform."

Still, it's a chilling precedent and if this is the case, the White House is idiotic not to have understood the ramifications. And it will most certainly lose them ground in the media war!

You know- you're the second person in a month to recommend it. I remember it making a splash when it was first published- I think it was on the cover of the National Review or some other magazine, and I thought the little Hitler smiley face was hilarious.

I voted either Reform or Libertarian in the last six elections, not because I thought any of the candidates could win, but as a matter of conscience. I think in the next election I'll register Democrat so I can help mess up the primary and get an unelectable putz nominated, like the Democrats did to the Republicans in 2008 in states that had "open primaries".

Well hold on! What state/district do you reside in? There are a lot of really great liberty-minded candidates trying to get on the GOP ticket for 2010. You might want to register Republican depending on where you live.